Postnatal thyroxine administration for idiopathic respiratory distress syndrome in preterm infants.

Thirty-six preterm infants of less than 34 weeks of gestation with idiopathic respiratory distress syndrome (IRDS) were studied. Eighteen of them were treated with intravenous thyroxine (T4) and compared with 18 control prematures to evaluate the effect of postnatal T4 administration on the course of IRDS. After treatment, serum T4 levels were similar to those of healthy term infants. No statistically significant effect on mortality rate, duration of mechanical ventilation (p greater than 0.3), need of high oxygen environment (p greater than 0.05) and development of bronchopulmonary dysplasia (p greater than 0.2) was observed between the two groups. These observations show that postnatal use of T4 does not carry any benefit for preterm infants with IRDS.